1. Field of Invention:
This invention relates generally to a simulated combat game set in which a toy water gun projects a water beam or stream toward a target, and in particular to a combat game set in which each player wears a target vest having a vulnerable site thereon that when struck and wet by water fired from a gun then registers a hit.
2. Status of Prior Art:
It is sometimes maintained that man is combative by nature, and the reason a competitive sport such a football is popular is because it affords the players and those watching the game a sublimated outlet for hostility and aggression, and therefore a healthy substitute for actual combat.
But whatever explanation is advanced for the appeal of competitive games, the fact remains that children have always enjoyed games which simulate combat, such as cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians, and in recent years, space warriors.
In any such children's game, the players are armed with toy weapons that are capable, when fired, of hitting another player who assumes the role of an enemy and is therefore a target. These toy guns must, of course, be innocuous; hence the projectile fired thereby may take the form of arrows tipped with suction cups rather than points, small soft balls made of foam plastic, or any other missile that can be fired to strike an enemy player without inflicting injury. Or the toy weapon may be of the type which projects a laser or light beam, or a beam or stream of water.
In order for a competitive combat game to be effective with children and have sustaining play value, it must simulate combat reality as understood by children whose concept of reality is usually gleaned from TV shows and motion pictures. Children recognize that in real combat when an enemy soldier is shot, this event is registered by the soldier falling to the ground or by some other action indicating that he is disabled and, as it were, hors de combat.
In the mythology of warfare there is one recurring theme. This theme centers on the existence of a seemingly invincible warrior who is vulnerable at only one site. Thus, the biblical warrier Samson possessed incredible strength, yet he could be robbed of strength by shearing off his hair and by no other means. Among the Greeks at ancient Troy, the greatest warrior was Achilles whose only site of vulnerability was at his heel. And even the great knight, Sir Galahad, had a chink in his armor. To update this myth, we now have police officers who wear bullet proof vests, but a vest of this type can be penetrated at some site by a high velocity bullet.
This mythological theme is not absent in modern children's games which simulate combat. Thus U.S. Pat. No. 4,487,583 discloses a toy which when fired projects a laser beam in the direction in which the gun is pointed. The target takes the form of a vest worn by a player and is provided at certain vulnerable sites with light sensors. Thus, merely striking the vest does not score a hit. To effectively hit a player, the light beam must be projected to impinge on a light sensor, in which event the resultant signal activates a hit indicator to register a hit. Thus, the Achilles heel of the player wearing this vest is at the light sensor thereon.
The problem with laser or light beam toy guns is that they fail to satisfy a child's craving for a toy weapon that simulates reality so that when fired it shoots out a tangible object. Light has no physical substance and is altogether silent, and it is for this reason that known toy light guns often include devices to produce, when the trigger is pulled, a noise burst so that the child operating the trigger has the sensation of doing more than closing a silent light switch.
The concern of the present invention is that with toy motorized water guns which project a beam of water and thereby satisfy a child's desire to shoot out something tangible when the gun is fired. Thus, U.S Pat. No. 4,022,350 discloses a water gun in which a battery-powered motor drives a pump that draws water from a reservoir and forces it through the gun barrel to be discharged from a nozzle. When the motor and pump are energized, intake and exit valves then act to periodically interrupt the flow of water, as a result of which the projected water beam is formed by a series of water pulses. This action is comparable to the action of an automatic machine gun which, when the trigger is pulled, fires a rapid succession of bullets.
When a water gun of the type disclosed in this patent is used in a simulated combat game, a hit is scored if the player firing the gun succeeds in striking another player with the projected water beam. But this falls short of what is desirable in such a game, for it takes little skill to strike a relatively large target constituted by a player3 s body. What is called for in order to make the game more interesting and to impart greater play value thereto is a target having a site of vulnerability thereon, or an Achilles heel that takes a fair degree of skill to strike. Thus, with practice some players will find it easier to strike the site than others, and this difference in the skills of the players will act to enhance the competitive nature of the game.
It is not enough, however, in the context of a water gun game to provide a target having a site of vulnerability thereon or a "bull's eye," for it is also necessary when a player succeeds in striking this site that this event be registered in some distinct way. In the case of a dart game, this represents no problem; for when the dart is thrown so that it pierces the bull's eye, this event is made evident by the presence of the dart in the bull's eye.
But with a water gun game, when a beam of clear water is projected toward a target, one cannot easily tell what part of the target is wet and therefore represents the site at which the beam has impinged thereon.